The Puppy

Summary: Little Cana gains a fluffy partner in crime much to her father's horror.

Warning: Extreme fluff ahead and description of a child pulling a disappearing act (if you have kids then you'll understand why I listed this. I may not have any of my own but I have a lot of little siblings)

AN: This follows Blessed Man

It was a beautiful day for a festival.

Gildarts was watching his little girl get more and more excited, her little head on a constant swivel as she tried to look at everything at the same time. The bright colors, the decorations, the food, and the small petting zoo that had been brought out for this special occasion.

Taking her had been a good idea.

He carefully set his tiny princess down when she started to struggle in his arms, smiling as she immediately ran over and started petting a lamb that was only a bit bigger than her.

Where was a camera when you needed one? A moment that sweet deserved pictures to commemorate.

It was a nice father-daughter day out, Conny had been so tired lately now that they were starting to ween Cana (the little princess wasn't too happy about it) and he felt she deserved a day to herself. He could handle their toddler alone for a couple hours while she slept.

The petting zoo was definitely Cana's favorite. The little girl was squealing over the miniature horses and the friendly goats, and he had to almost pry the rabbit she had been petting out of her hands. It was only his promise that they could come back after lunch that stopped the tantrum.

There were plenty of food booths to pick from and he had wound up carrying her to each and asking her what she wanted; which was how his daughter's lunch wound up consisting of lemonade, the cheesiest fries he had ever seen, chicken nuggets, and a chocolate sundae for dessert (his wife was going to kill him).

Then he made a horrible mistake- he took his eyes off his daughter to go throw away their trash. In the span of the three seconds he had his eyes off of her she had disappeared.

Shit.

oOOOOo

Ten minutes.

It had taken him ten whole minutes to find her.

Ten minutes in which he had run around screaming her name and grabbing random strangers and begging them to know if they had seen her. Ten whole minutes where he felt like his world was crumbling around him as he desperately looked for his precious little girl, half certain that he would never see her again. Then a light bulb went off in his head.

Petting zoo.

He had told her that they could go back to the petting zoo after lunch and they had just finished lunch when she disappeared.

Upon arriving in the area filled with small children and fluffy animals, he didn't see her at first and the terror was growing steadily- then he spotted her.

He found his little girl sleeping in a basket surrounded by little furry bodies.

Gildarts didn't even stop to figure out what they were, he just dropped to his knees, pulled his now groggy baby out of the basket and held her as tightly to him as he dared. She was okay, she was safe. He had her now. Everything was fine.

"Daddy?" She asked in puzzlement, not quite sure how she had gone from nap time to Daddy acting weird.

He just kissed her forehead, before setting her down and making her look him in the eyes," Cana don't run away- do you know how badly you scared Daddy? Don't ever go anywhere without telling me- anything could have happened- "He cut himself off and just pulled his baby back into his arms with a shuddering breath. Trying to explain what she did wrong wasn't going to do much. A fifteen-month-old was way too young to understand why what she had done was wrong. Still it was worth trying to explain it to her and investing in one of those backpack leashes sounded like a very smart investment.

Cana had already stopped paying attention to him, struggling to get out of his arms and back to the basket. It was only then Gildarts decided to take a look at the basket his daughter had decided was a good nap spot. And spotted the sign tied to the handle, with a dawning sense of horror he read two of the most terrifying words a parent of a small child could read.

Free Puppies

oOOOOo

"So- are we going to discuss how a day out at the festival ended with you two getting a dog?" Cornelia asked quirking a brow at her sheepish husband.

"Well… she was very persuasive- "

"Gildarts she can only speak in six-word sentences."

The crash mage rubbed the back of his head with his hand as he watched his baby cuddle with the small bundle of white fluff she had picked out. He had tried to get Cana away from the evil basket with every trick he could think of- bribery, distraction, outright picking her up (that ended in a screaming fit), but every single time Cana went back to the basket of her fluffy new friends.

"…I'm weak to our daughter's tears?" He offered getting a snort from his wife.

"I already knew that. Gildarts she isn't even two yet- "

"Then you take it away from her." He retorted. He had fallen victim to a double puppy-eyes plea. Which was more than a little terrifying- he was already weak to one set of puppy eyes, now he had to deal with two?

Cornelia rolled her eyes before giving in to the madness," You're in charge of walking it Gildarts."

"Are you referring to the dog or our daughter?" He said with a grin, accepted the exasperated swat from his wife.

His daughter now had a partner in crime that was just as good at the puppy-eye guilt trip as she was. He was going to regret this very soon, but he was smiling anyway.

AN: I was writing a different chapter when this came to me and I had a blast getting it down! I just had this scene of a tearful sniffle and a 'please daddy' as both the girl and the dog gave him the dreaded eyes- Gildarts being weak to puppy eyes isn't even a question. He will melt and usually give in to whatever his little princess asks for if she gives him that look, unless it is for a piercing, then it doesn't work so good (that chapter is coming out soon). I also would like to take this time to remember my conquered enemy: I HAVE DEFEATED YOU EXAMS! MWAHAHAHA! YOU DID YOUR BEST TO BREAK ME DOWN BUT I HAVE EMERGED THE VICTOR! Okay I'm done.

Tell me what you think!